25. redesigning design
because recollection
Experience my favorite website of all time, Because Recollection, before you read.
The website was launched in 2016 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of independent label group, Because Music, created by the creative agency 84.Paris. In 2016, it won the Digital Craft Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival.
And a decade later, it’s still my favorite thing on the internet.
Play (with) music
Because Recollection is what web design can (and should) be.
Web design, for all its advancements, has become safe. Standardized templates, rigid grids, and “best practices” have made modern websites monocultural and indistinguishable. In chasing optimization, we’ve squeezed out experimentation.
But Because Recollection reminds us of a vital design truth: playfulness in design isn’t frivolous; it’s functional, and it’s the point. Exploration becomes the message itself.
Music is a portal to the psyche. And design, when used well, is the medium to open it.
“What if instead of just listening to music, you could play with it?”
- Because Music
How can web design transcend traditional boundaries to create immersive user experiences? 10 years of sound, 20 iconic artworks from the label delivered via simple but mesmerizing interactions. Finding easter egg hidden features, manipulating elements of the album art, coaxes users from passive listening to active experiencing.
Maybe redesigning design isn’t about making things better but making things matter.
Better is incremental, but matter is existential.
Interactive stories
In a digital world saturated with sameness, Because Recollection is an outlier collision of sound, story, and interactivity that invites us to reimagine what web design can achieve.
The best digital experiences feel less like navigation and more like memory. Unfolding naturally, purposefully slower, intuitive.
When something’s designed with deep intent, it mimics the way we think and move: loops, fragments, feelings.
This initiative underscores a pivotal shift in web design philosophy that feels overdue: from static, information-centric pages to dynamic, experience-driven platforms. By integrating interactive elements that resonate with users on a more emotional level (even if that emotion is just “more fun”), designers can craft memorable experiences that foster deeper connections between brands and their audiences.
“Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something the world didn't know it was missing.”
- Paola Antonelli
A button can be a demand, or it can be an invitation. Unrelated to that point though,
Logos over pathos is the end of purposeful design, and it feels like we’ve built too many things that work perfectly and make sense and also feel like nothing.
The potential of web design as a medium for storytelling, engagement, and artistic expression is massively underexplored.
Ambient dreams
Each album featured in the experience isn’t just represented but also reimagined. The user interacts with deconstructed album art, ambient loops, and atmospheric animations that feel like dreams.
The project is a retrospective, a sensory museum, a love letter to art, a thoughtful unboxing, a time capsule wrapped in good music. But most importantly, it’s a nudge that the internet doesn’t have to be linear scroll. Why settle for that when you can seduce, surprise, and stir emotion?
“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.”
- Leonardo da Vinci
The question is no longer, “Can we build it?” But, “Can we build it beautifully?
The internet is efficient, as it was optimized to be. Maybe it’s time to make parts of it inefficient. Slowness, friction, and ambiguity aren’t always bugs. Sometimes, they are the feature, they are the point.
Let’s make the web unforgettable again.
** Honorable mention goes to Yamauchi No. 10 Family Office. This is the legitimate website of a family office in Japan (grandson of the founder of Nintendo)
